The Missionaries of Francis: The Theology of the People and the Unification of the Argentine Piquetero Movement (2014–2018)

Abstract

Founded in 2014, the Missionaries of Francis is a small social movement organization made up of activists from several other social movement organizations representing informal workers and the unemployed. Its goal was to promote the message of the newly appointed Pope Francis among the poor and excluded. Drawing inspiration from the theology of the people, the movement is contributing new repertoires of contention based on popular religious images and icons to Argentine social movements. Starting in 2016, it has occupied a key role, bringing together ideologically and politically heterogeneous social movement organizations to resist the neoliberal social policies of President Mauricio Macri. Fundados en 2014, los Misioneros de Francisco son una pequeña organización formada por activistas de varios movimientos sociales que representan a los trabajadores informales y a los desempleados. Su objetivo fue promover el mensaje del recién nombrado Papa Francisco entre los pobres y excluidos. Inspirado en la teología del pueblo, el movimiento está aportando nuevos repertorios de protesta basados en imágenes e íconos de la religiosidad popular a los movimientos sociales argentinos. Ha jugado un papel clave a partir de 2016, reuniendo organizaciones de movimientos sociales ideológica y políticamente heterogéneos para resistir las políticas sociales neoliberales del presidente Mauricio Macri.

Institutionalizing Populist Power Coalitions in Latin America: Argentina’s Economic and Social Council and Brazil’s Council for Economic and Social Development

“…The populist governments (understood in terms of Laclau, 2005) of the early 2000s (also called "neodevelopmentalist," "twenty-first-century socialist," or "national and popular") attempted to modify the institutional bases of Latin American capitalism with more inclusive models through the return of state economic intervention (Munck, 2015). After the failure of neoliberalism in the region during the 1990s, the state strategy of "national development" (Ebenau, 2014) sought to strengthen coalitions supported by union (Etchemendy, 2011), social (Forni, 2020;Oliveira and Dowbor, 2020), and business organizations capable of and interested in mobilizing resources-in particular, the national business class that depended on the internal market. In contrast, multinationals not aligned with the "national interest" (Ebenau, 2014) were at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the state.…”

“…Nevertheless, the powerful unions and vast social majorities supported the internal market strategies. In recent years, the expanding social movements also supported Peronism and expressed their rejection of neoliberal governments (Forni, 2020). Nevertheless, there was always tension between the defense of their autonomy and greater institutionalization of their organizations and demands, something quite common in other regional experiments (Oliveira and Dowbor, 2020).…”

“…However, the sector of unemployed and informal workers is very well organized in Argentina and is unusually influential on government policy compared with those of other Latin American countries (Garay, 2007). While Argentine social movements have been divided ideologically and politically since their inception in the 1990s (they even criticized the Kirchners’ policies), during Macri’s administration they established a united front against the social cuts and neoliberal reforms (Forni, 2020) that was later institutionalized in the UTEP. Nevertheless, one member of the CGT interviewed classified the UTEP as a “social union” organization (interview, Buenos Aires, December 20, 2021), detracting from its actual impact on labor relations.…”

The Persistent Influence of December 2001: Collective Action in 21st‐Century Argentina

“…Decried as an unprecedented grieta or ‘crack’ in Argentina's social fabric, this division can be seen as the continuation of decades‐long conflicts surrounding Peronism, exacerbated by elements of neoliberal‐driven factionalism such as media concentration, entrenched inequalities and declining interpersonal trust (which have become common throughout the world, see Sassen, 2014; Latinobarómetro, 2015; Noam, 2016). The consequences of this political fracture for social movements have been complex (Gold and Peña, 2019), as it not only created major divisions across the ‘K/anti‐K’ split, but also facilitated instances of unity on each side (Gold, 2019; Forni, 2020).…”

La Economía Popular como identidad colectiva. El camino a la unidad de los movimientos y organizaciones populares en la Argentina (2011-2019)

“…En las movilizaciones de la CTEP, en conjunto con otras organizaciones, coexisten diversos símbolos: banderas argentinas junto a la whipala y banderas rojas y negras; la estrella federal comparte espacio con cruces, pero también con la oz y el martillo; el Che Guevara flamea junto a Evita, Perón y Mao; Néstor y Cristina aparecen junto al Papa Francisco y Túpac Amaru. 24 El papel de las imágenes de la religiosidad popular en las movilizaciones del 7 de agosto ha sido abordado desde la perspectiva de la sociología de la religión (Giménez Beliveau y Carbonelli, 2017) así como desde la mirada de los movimientos sociales (Forni;. En este artículo nos centramos únicamente en la identidad colectiva vinculada a la economía social.…”